


What If...Symmetra: Moksha

by MsFaust



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Power of music, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 17:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15912930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsFaust/pseuds/MsFaust
Summary: What if something happened during Vishkar’s occupation of Lucio’s favela that gave Symmetra a different outlook?





	What If...Symmetra: Moksha

It had seemed so simple.  
  
Less than a week ago, someone had stolen experimental sonic technology, and Satya had been sent to retrieve it. Fortunately, the culprit had already been identified--one Lucio Correia dos Santos, a local DJ who regularly performed when curfew was supposed to be in effect. It took some effort (the locals had not been forthcoming with information), but she was able to find one of his underground shows.  
  
As she entered the crowded hall, careful to stay off to the side, she was greeted by the sound of intense, pulsing music. It was chaotic, and by all rights, she should have hated it. But there was something about the rhythm that seemed to call to her very soul. For a moment, she wondered if it was some sort of hypnotic effect, but then she dismissed it. She knew that hypnotism could not force someone to act against their true will: a hypnotized saint was still a saint. Besides, the stolen tech couldn't do that, and she had no idea how else he'd be able to do that with his music.  
  
Looking around, she saw how happy everyone seemed. There was joy in their dance, joy of a sort that she had never seen before. It was the joy of freedom, disorderly as it was, and it could not be found in the halls of Vishkar.  
  
Closing her eyes, she stood there and listened.  
  
(OW)  
  
When Satya left about an hour later, it was without the tech. But that didn't matter, because she had a lot going through her mind. In the days following, she spent her time researching different forms of music and their influence throughout history.  
  
A few days after Vishkar had been driven out of Rio de Janeiro, she came across an article about a British band from the 1960s. Reading the article piqued her curiosity, and so she took to reading more about them, as well as buying a couple of CDs with their music for research purposes. Many of the songs rather pleasing to listen to, especially one titled Across the Universe.  
  
"Jai guru deva  
Om...  
Nothing's gonna change my world.  
Nothing's gonna change my world.  
Nothing's gonna change my world.  
Nothing's gonna change my world."  
  
_Such beautiful harmony_ , she thought. _And it was written by men who care nothing for war. Yet, music like this is associated with a movement considered anti-government, at least in part--a chaotic movement._  
  
It seemed so strange that such a paradox could exist, but it did all the same. Perhaps even in a perfect world, order and chaos could coexist.  
  
(OW)  
  
Several years later, Vishkar had been dismantled after evidence tying several of its directors to Talon surfaced. Fortunately, the recently reformed Overwatch, now free of government oversight, offered Satya to join them, and she accepted.  
  
She briefly considered taking a new name, to symbolize how she was no longer the same person, but then she remembered the concept of moksha. In Hinduism, moksha referred to the release of oneself from the cycle of rebirth, and the transcendent state that resulted. Likewise, she had realized that Vishkar was akin to maya—the Hindu illusion of the world—and had been released from it. Had things been different, she never would have had that revelation.  
  
But she had, and she had never been happier.


End file.
